lidar

or LI·DAR

[ lahy-dahr ]

nounElectronics, Optics.
  1. a device similar to radar in principle and operation but using infrared laser light instead of radio waves and capable of detecting particles, distant objects, and varying physical conditions in the atmosphere.

Origin of lidar

1
1960–65; li(ght1) + (ra)dar
  • Also called laser radar .

Words Nearby lidar

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use lidar in a sentence

  • There are many other important active sensor classes, three of which are active acoustics, lidar and magnetic anomaly detectors.

    Shock and Awe | Harlan K. Ullman
  • lidar detects shape directly and shape fluctuations such as vibration and motion and has proven very hard to spoof.

    Shock and Awe | Harlan K. Ullman
  • Islamabad is the starting-point for both the lidar valley and Martand, and here the house-boat may be left.

    Kashmir | Sir Francis Edward Younghusband
  • A favourite side-valley is the lidar, for which the road takes off from the main valley at Bijbehara.

    Kashmir | Sir Francis Edward Younghusband
  • And so, in marches of about ten miles a day, we came to Pahlgam on the banks of the dancing lidar.

Scientific definitions for lidar

lidar

[ där ]


  1. A method of detecting distant objects and determining their position, velocity, or other characteristics by analysis of pulsed laser light reflected from their surfaces. Lidar operates on the same principles as radar and sonar.

  2. The equipment used in such detection. See also Doppler effect radar sonar.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.